Wayzata U.S. Army General Turned Author Sounds Off on Arrest of Air Force Officer

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In his strongest statements on the issue to date, President Obama said Tuesday that sexual assault in the U.S. military was a “betrayal of the uniform” and ordered Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to "step up our game exponentially" to halt such acts.

For Wayzata resident and retired U.S. Army General Bob Shadley, the directive was a welcome sign that Washington and senior military officials are finally taking sexual assault within the ranks seriously and making prevention and education a top priority.

“The President is right on,” Shadley said. “There needs to be a strong attack on this.”

General Shadley spearheaded a 1996 investigation that eventually led to the discovery of a sexual exploitation network against female trainees. In his new book "The GAMe: Unraveling a Military Sex Scandal," Shadley gives a detailed report on both the 1996 case at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds and the military's continuing failures to combat sexual assault.

“The Army, in particular, and the Department of Defense in general had a golden opportunity in 1997 to declare war on sexual assault throughout the military,” Shadley said. “Instead the leadership and the Pentagon decided to say that the Aberdeen Proving Grounds was an aberration and that sexual assault was not a problem. The emphasis was on making the problem go away instead of solving it, and we’re living with the consequences 17 years later.”

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Yesterday’s remarks by President Obama came on the heels of Lt. Col. Jeff Krusinski—the U.S. Air Force’s officer in charge of sexual assault prevention—being arrested over the weekend after allegedly groping a woman in Virginia. While reserving critique of Krusinski’s behavior until the facts were known and evidence presented, Shadley said it appeared the case was but the latest example of conduct unbecoming of a senior officer and said the arrest underscored the need for a re-focused effort in addressing sexual assault in the U.S. military.

“The Air Force lieutenant colonel shows once again that if you don’t do the right thing, bad things happen,” Shadley said. “It certainly appears like he’s the type of person that doesn’t need to be leading people in our military.”

The latest statistics on sexual assault in the U.S. military were released just yesterday and show an increase in reported cases during 2012. Shadley wrote in his book that approximately 19,000 cases of sexual assault occur each year, but the latest statistics show reported cases surged to more than 26,000 in 2012.

“In my experience it’s not one victim and one perpetrator—it’s one perpetrator and multiple victims,” Shadley said. “If you say you have one perpetrator and three victims, that’s like saying you have between 7,000 and 8,000 perpatrators a year in a military of 1.3 million. That’s less than one percent. It’s up to the other 99 percent to help police their own ranks and identify these individuals.”

Shadley added that sexual assault in both the military and in the civilian population was an issue that cuts across political beliefs, religious preference and gender and requires a “community effort” to “ferret out” offenders.

“It’s a force protection issue—it’s not a woman’s rights issue per se,” he said. “Everyone is entitled to work in a safe environment. The same people in the military who are charged with protecting soldiers from improvised explosive devices should be the same ones that are worried about protecting soldiers from sexual predators. We have to engrain that in our officers.”

Shadley spent more than three decades in the U.S. Army. He was instrumental in establishing the base at Guantanamo Bay, was J4 of the Atlantic Command during the mid-1990s and spent six years mentoring army units headed for combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The GAMe: Unraveling a Military Sex Scandal" is available for download on the various e-book sites like Amazon (Kindle). Shadley said he receives multiple e-mails each day from readers across the country thanking him for his work on combating sexual assault.

“One retired four-star general said the book should be mandatory for all general officers, and one retired general said it should be mandatory reading for all sergeants and above,” Shadley said. “It’s not just military, either. The CEO of a major company here in the Twin Cities has made it mandatory reading for his management team.”

With current events putting the issue of sexual assault on the national radar, Shadley said he will be busy this summer promoting the book and making speaking appearances. He will travel to Fort Lee, VA, next month to address 350 leaders from various corners of the public and private sector.